Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1887-09-25
THINGS OF THE DEEP
A RAGE POR KILLING sWORDFISH NOW
PREVAILING.
A Party TO Leave New York for the Sport This
Wesk-Nsw Facts Prom Prof GOOds About
The SwOrdfsh-Savagsly Piercing YES
sci Twenty Times.
Mal and Erpress, Sept. l6.

men will start early next week On a trip
after the most dangerous game fish known
} to our coast. This is the monster sword,
fish, the season for killing which is just
now in its height. They will 60 first to
Newport, where pilots will be engaged,
and thence to Nantucket, where the fish
are. Expeditions of this kind are rare,
both because of the skill necessary to sue
cessfully cope with the big savage fish, and
also because of the danger to men and YES
!, sells. Nevertheless the sport is becoming
the rage this fall among fishermen anxious
to kill big game and everything concern
ing it is taken up and discussed with the
greatest interest.
In making inquiries on the subject, to-
day, aTeporter for the Nail and Express
learned that a work is in press by A. r.
Hart & Co, which gives an original chap
ter on sword. fishing. The work is by
Prof G. Brown GoOde, the newly appoint
ed United States Fish Commissioner, and
is to be entitled American Fishes" 1t
is to be a complete work on the game and
food fishes of North America. Mr.. Hart
has obtained many valuable hints for his
hazardous expedition from this account, as
we'll as much new and interesting knowl-
edge about the swordfsh. Through his
courtesy the reporter was permitted to
glance at the prOOf-sheetS.
"Thepursuit of the swordfsh, Professor
GoOde says, lis much more exciting than or
binary fishing, for it resembles the hunting
Of large animals upon the land and partakes
| mo nf ha Of 20
no slow or careful batting and patient
waiting, and no disappointment caused by
the accidental capture of worthless bait
stealers The game is seen and followed,
and outwitted by wary tactics and killed
| by strength of arm and skill. The sword
fish is powerful antagonist, sometimes,
and sends his pursuers' vessel into
harbor leaking, and almost sinking, from
| injuries he has inflicted. l have known
a vessel to be struck by wounded sword
| fish as many as twenty times in season.
| There is even the spice of personal danger
| to give SAVIOR to the chase, for the men are
occasionally injured by the infatuated fish.
One Of Capt. AsbY'S crew was severely
wounded by a swordfsh, which thrust his
beak through the oak floor of Z boat on
which he was standing, and pene-
trated about two inches in his
naked heel. The strange fascination
draws mPu 10 this pursuit when they
have once learned its charms. An old
swOrdiisherman, who had followed the
pursuit for twenty years, told me that
when he was on the cruising ground he
| fished all night in his dreams, and that
many time he has bruised his hands and
rubbed the skin off his knuckles by strik.
ing them against the ceiling of his bunk
| when he raised his arms to thrust the har-
poon into the visionary monster sword
| fishes"
The Professor says that many swordfsh
attain the weight OF 400 and 500 pounds
each, while some grow to 600 pounds. The
largest ever taken by Capt Ashby, who
| for twenty years was q swOrdfisherman,
was killed on the shoals back of Edgar
town, Mass, and when sailed weighed
639 pounds. It's live weight must have
been as much as $50 or 800 pounds. Its
sword measured nearly six feet. The only
individual fish of which there has been
kept the exact measurements was taken
off Seaconnet, K. l., July %, 1874. This
weighed 1l3 pounds. The average weight
of those about Block Island is 200 pounds.
For many years 300 to 600 Of these fish
have been taken annually on the New Eng
land coast. 1t is not unusual for twenty
five or more to be seen in the course of a
single days cruising, and sometimes as
many as this are visible from the masthead
at one time. The swordfish comes into
Eastern waters in pursuit of food, preying
on menhaden and mackerel. The appear
ance of the fish at the surface depends ap-
parently on temperature. They are seen
only on quiet summer days, in the morning
before 10 and IL, and in the afternoon after
noon after o'clock. Old fishermen say
they rise when the mackerel rise, and
when the mackerel go down they 90 down
also. The fish when swimming at the
surface usually allows its dorsal fin and
the upper lobe of its caudal fin to be WISH
BILE, projecting out of the water several
inches. 1t is this habit which enables the
fishermen to detect the presence of the
fish. 1t swims slowly along, and the fish,
ing schooner with light breeze finds DO
difficulty in overtaking it.
When excited, Prof. GoOde says, the
swordfsh's motions are most quick and
nervous. The fish are sometimes seen to
leap entirely out of the water. The point
ed head, the fins of the back and abdomen
simply fitting into grooves, the absence OF
ventrals, the long, 1.-the, muscular body,
sloping slowly to the tail, fit it for the
most rapid and fOICiblc movement through
the water 1t strikes with the accumu-
lated force OF fifteen double headed
hammers. It's velocity is equal to that
of q swivel-shot and is "a dangerous in
its effects as q heavy artillery proiectile.
Many very curious instances are on record
of the encounters of this fish with other
fishes. or of their attacks upOn ships.
What can be the inducement for it TO at
attack objects so much larger than itselfis
hard to surmise. II surely seems as if u
temporary insanity sometimes takes pos
session Of the fish. An old swOrdtsher
man told Mr. Blackford that his vessel had
been struck twenty times. There are,
however, many instances of entirely I'M
provoked assault on vessels at sea.
HOW THEY ARE CAUGHT.
The apparatus employed in the capture
of swordtish, Prof. Goode says, is simple.
1t is harpOon with a detachable head.
When the fish is struck the head of the
harpoon remains in the body of the fish,
and carries with it light rope, which is
either made fast or held Ivy man
in a small boat, or is attached to some
kind of buoy, which is towed
through the water by the struggling fish,
and which marks its whereabouts after
death. The harpoon consists of pole
fifteen or sixteen feet in length, usually
of hickory or some other hard wood, upon
which the bark has been left so that the
harpooner may have firmer hand grip.
This pole is from an inch AID half to two
inches in diameter, and at one end is pro-
yided with an iron rod or shank about two
feet long and five-eights of an inch in di-
ameter. This shank is fastened to
the pole by means Of conical or
elongated, cuplike expansion at one end,
which gets over the sharpened end of the
pole, to which it is secured by screws OF